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The Autobiography of Mark Twain

by Mark Twain , Charles Neider

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 1,831 ratings · 207 reviews

Mark Twain's autobiography is a classic of American letters, to be ranked with the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Adams.... It has the marks of greatness in it--style, scope, imagination, laughter, tragedy."--From the Introduction by Charles Neider

Mark Twain was a figure larger than life: massive in talent, eruptive in temperament, unpredictable in his acti ...more

Paperback , Modern Classics , 508 pages

Published November 28th 2000 by Harper Perennial (first published April 1959)

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Community Reviews

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Nov 30, 2010 Virgilio rated it 5 of 5 stars

“In this Autobiography I shall keep in mind that I am speaking from the grave. I am literally speaking from the grave, because I shall be dead when the book issues from the press”(Twain xxxv).
The Autobiography of Mark Twain explores the many aspects and anecdotes of Mark Twain’s life, as well as the many people who influenced Twain and his work immensely. He reveals his personal thoughts of the people around him, and the world around him. He reveals himself as a person who writes what he knows, “In this Autobiography I shall keep in mind that I am speaking from the grave. I am literally speaking from the grave, because I shall be dead when the book issues from the press”(Twain xxxv).
The Autobiography of Mark Twain explores the many aspects and anecdotes of Mark Twain’s life, as well as the many people who influenced Twain and his work immensely. He reveals his personal thoughts of the people around him, and the world around him. He reveals himself as a person who writes what he knows, as many of his beloved characters are based off of people he has known. Since the topic of the book is on his own life, it was very rich and full of detail. This is an exhilarating read, and is easily one of the best books I have read.
Mr. Twain had led very rich and full life, which increase the quality of the piece itself. He goes from having a very incomplete education to having a honorary degree from Oxford University. He’s narrowly avoided death by duel, and faces hardship in the forms of massive debt. He is surrounded by loving family members and greedy publishers. He meets many famous people, including President Ulysses S. Grant, who asked Twain for his help when writing his autobiography.
What struck me about this book was that, at the middle of the book, I started to treat it not as a a boring biography but as an immersive and interesting story. He presents the events of his life with certain flair. For example, when Twain and a fellow author talk about Twain’s private politics:
“Some days afterward I met her again for a moment and she gave me the startling information that she had written down everything I said, just as I said it, without any softening and purifying modifications… She begged me to let her publish.. but I said it would damn me before my time and I don’t wish to be useful to the world on such expensive conditions. (467) ”
However, the writing is a bit sporadic, as he tends to switch from an event from his early childhood to an event later in life. For example, he jumps from talking about his father’s style of cooking potatoes, to a feast that is being hosted by the Emperor of Germany. Although he is able to make it flow very well most of the time, it can become a hassle rereading notes trying to understand what was going on.
Mark Twain’s presentation of his own life is vivid and full. Though his writing was chaotic at times, the Twain flair makes the chaos more exciting, more lively than an ordinary autobiography. Its dynamic presentation, although exciting, can break the pacing of the book. Also, some points of his life by themselves seem mundane. However, in the end, the strengths of The Autobiography of Mark Twain highlights this book as an exciting read.
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Mar 28, 2009 May rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction , historical

Striking: his use of chiasmus (crossing of terms in one sentence). For instance: "When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it" (p. 4). Well, that's high lit and philosophy, all packaged with one powerful sense of humor, plus a touch of teasing. Worse part is that I do feel that way about n Striking: his use of chiasmus (crossing of terms in one sentence). For instance: "When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it" (p. 4). Well, that's high lit and philosophy, all packaged with one powerful sense of humor, plus a touch of teasing. Worse part is that I do feel that way about not remembering right--so he's able to touch me at a very vulnerable spot as well.
Another is: "Perhaps no bread in the world is quite so good as Southern corn bread and perhaps no bread in the world is quite so bad as the Northern imitation of it" (p. 5). Wow! I read Tom Sawyer (in French...) as a girl, and I see now why I liked it quite a bit. This is good stuff.

I finished this autobiography 2 weeks ago. It was a difficult read, because the format is so chopped up: it takes work to get into a piece, and before you know it, the piece is over and you have to work into a new one. BUT, it was not a finished work, Mark Twain dictated a lot of it toward the end of his life, and it was pieced together after his death. So, lower your expectations if you decide to get intimate with a pretty unusual person. 4 stars because it does not stand as a whole.

There are lots of "jewels" in those pieces: stories of his childhood, like the one of the frozen Mississippi (48-49) and the mesmerizer (66-76) which provides life-long munching material (and great topic to discuss with your teenager during a car drive). Loads of intricate thoughts put into striking forms, like: "As a rule, technicalities of a man's vocation and figures and metaphors drawn from it slip out in his talk and reveal his trade; but if this ever happened in Macfarlane's case I was none the wiser, although I was constantly on the watch during half a year for those very betrayals." This is a great thought: to listen to images used by someone to guess who they are. It's funny too, because it did not work in this case, and Mark Twain is the butt of what has become a joke (isn't it so funny to imagine him working so hard for 6 months with no results?).

Mark Twain ends his autobiography with the death of his daughter Jean (he asked his editor to do so if he thought it appropriate). He also shares the death of his wife and other daughter Suzy. There is little literary value and no humor in those final pieces, and it leaves you with a heavy heart that pain could strip this man of his spirit. Nice though (and reassuring...) that such a vivacious scoundrel could love his wife and their daughters with such dedication until death!

...more

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Dec 16, 2010 Larry Bassett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography , southern-writers

This is NOT the Mark Twain Post 100 years Autobiography that everyone is talking about. This book was copyrighted in 1959 by the editor Charles Neider . The 2010 Autobiography of Mark Twain. Vol. 1 is found elsewhere on GRs.

Neider's most important book, however, was arguably The Autobiography of Mark Twain (1959), in which he fashioned a chronological structure that was lacking in the original material and included never-before-published passages. Certainly the most widely read version of Mark Tw

Neider's most important book, however, was arguably The Autobiography of Mark Twain (1959), in which he fashioned a chronological structure that was lacking in the original material and included never-before-published passages. Certainly the most widely read version of Mark Twain's autobiographical writings, that book has played a major role in shaping the public image of Mark Twain the man. Source: http://faculty.citadel.edu/leonard/js...

This 1959 version is hardly an autobiography in the born-lived-died sense. In fact, it took me about 50 pages before I figured out that I was going to be disappointed if I continued to look for that kind of an autobiography. This book is really a series of short stories told as if a Mark Twain impersonator was standing up in front of you on stage. With Mark Twain it is always hard to figure out when he is telling the truth. His name is even fiction. His speaking style is often as if he is telling a story. Twain tells stories about his years on the lecture circuit traveling the U.S. and the world telling stories. He is known as an amazing storyteller.

If this was a book of short stories and that was what I was looking for, I would probably give this book three stars. But I was looking for something a little more like an autobiography. I though that it developed more of a coherent whole feeling toward the end. More like one big connected story rather than a random selection of short stories. I am wondering how the new 2010 autobiography will handle my quest to read something about the life and times of Mark Twain; maybe it will have to be a biography. Please let it not be Wikipedia!
...more

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Jun 21, 2013 Susan Branch rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started crying from happiness at about page two. When I finished this book, Joe and I got in the car and drove directly to his house in Hartford CT and I cried all the way through that too. He is wonderful, brilliant, genius. Learning about his life from his own pen felt like a gift. From him, I've gleaned tiny informative bits to add to my mental notes on "how to write."

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Jul 07, 2008 Brian Flatt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: anyone interested in the human drama of one of the world's most beloved authors

Shelves: memoir

Ok, I have decided to mete out the 5 stars sparingly. The rating wouldn't mean much if it was given to just any old book that I happened to like.
This book though, is without a doubt, one of those few that actually deserves more than 5 stars and it is therefore one of my favorite books of all time.

Why?

Well, I think there are some books that you read and you think, upon closing the last page, "Hmmm, that was a pretty good book", but then if asked about it a few days later you might be hard pres Ok, I have decided to mete out the 5 stars sparingly. The rating wouldn't mean much if it was given to just any old book that I happened to like.
This book though, is without a doubt, one of those few that actually deserves more than 5 stars and it is therefore one of my favorite books of all time.

Why?

Well, I think there are some books that you read and you think, upon closing the last page, "Hmmm, that was a pretty good book", but then if asked about it a few days later you might be hard pressed to remember much if anything about it. Other books you read, they affect you, they touch your life, your heart, your soul, and you are changed, a different person afterwards. I have not read too many of those books.

When people are asked to name the books that have changed their lives, I'm always amused at those whose lists are long. My list is short and this one is on the short list.

I absolutely fell in love with Mark Twain and his autobiography. It is even more interesting when you realize that Mark Twain never actually wrote an autobiography. What he did write were a grab bag assortment of small books and personal anecdotes, with the intention of someone else compiling it after his death into an autobiography. That is why each version will be slightly different. This is not the version that I read, but Amazon did not have a photo of it, so I chose this one.

I was just so taken in by the humanity of Mark Twain, his was an American life to be sure, but it was more than that. He was a living human being,much more than just one of America's, the world's, most beloved authors. He was also a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a friend. He was all of those and more. He lived the ups and downs of life. He lived through more than his fair share of tragedy and yet in the end, he was never beaten by life's circumstances. He stayed true to who he was. He stayed forever and inimitably, Mark Twain. He laughed, he cried, he was happy, and he was sad. In the end he was supremely human, not a perfect human being, and his flaws are readily apparent.
This was one of the few books that I have read where I actually had tears streaming down my face when I closed the last page.

From his early boyhood, to the many tragedies in his life, all the way up to the end when he lost his daughter and his wife, this book was incredibly poignant. You couldn't help loving this man even more and being sad that we have no equivalent of Mark Twain today. He died himself the following year after his daughter Jean died and the world has been the worse off ever since.
\ ...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Chip Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography

I'm not sure this is a book that you read cover to cover. It's more like a Mark Twain smorgasbord. Twain wanted to make sure that his autobiography wasn't predictable. So it doesn't unfold in any well ordered way which is fine. It really is just a series of reminiscences, anecdotes, tales and memories. The differences that it's Mark Twain who is telling the stories. So in almost every case not only are they fascinating because they are about him and about his life, but because they are being tol ...more

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Dec 09, 2013 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biographies-memoirs

I enjoyed this so much. It is a completely unconventional bio, and the introduction is extremely interesting and helpful in understanding the book's structure: it doesn't have one. As Twain remembered things, he wrote them. They were to be published in the order of composition. I like this. It helps it read more like a journal. There were some really tragic accounts. I think saddest of all are the accounts of the deaths of his children - most especially his infant. His daughters seem to be remar ...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir , classics , americana

I ought to have read through this much faster and less thoroughly since I was looking specifically for musical references while researching a Twain-themed library music program, but I couldn't help but read through most of it, especially towards the beginning. Yes, Twain constantly rambles into miscellaneous musings but those musings are often pure gold, skillfully rendered with often gut-splittingly hilarity.

He was an international celebrity at this point who didn't have to write anything exc ...more

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Jun 22, 2014 Roof Beam Reader rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: victorian-celebration

Painful and wonderful.

Read the full review:
http://classiclit.about.com/od//fl/Th...

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Apr 09, 2015 Amelmag rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio , kenya-reading

I defy anyone to read this book and not to love this man. He is witty beyond measure, but it is a gentle humor in the end. The humor of a man who lived life sincerely and felt things deeply. A man of deep wisdom and deeper compassion. It is a self-deprecating humor (for his wisdom is the wisdom of Socrates -- the kind that recognizes its own limitations, its own folly). It is the humor of a man who loved life well, and saw in it, always, something of majesty and mystery and delight.

I don't know ...more

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Jul 05, 2013 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mark Twain on "the Thing Called an Authors' Reading"
"I think that [Thursday afternoon at Vassar] was the first exploitation of a new and devilish invention—the thing called an Authors’ Reading. This witch’s Sabbath took place in a theatre, and began at two in the afternoon. There were nine readers on the list, and I believe I was the only one who was qualified by experience to go at the matter in a sane way. I knew, by my old acquaintanceship with the multiplication table, that nine times ten a ...more

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Dec 22, 2009 Lavinia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009 , journals-biographies-memoirs

Most of it is funny. And it’s frustrating when, compared to Twain, I’m leading an incredibly dull life. Everything that is interesting, funny, outrageous, supernatural & all seems to happen to him. And oh, the envy on his wittiness!
In some parts, it’s touchy. Not only the episodes about his mother and brother (characters in his books – Sid and Aunt Polly, for those who remember), but especially the memories about his wife and daughters. Susy’s biography, written when she was about 14 (have n ...more

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Nov 13, 2014 Tortla rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics , giggles , memoiry , multiple-perspectives , writing-on-writing , historical-fact

I read a selection of chapters actually published (in periodical form) during his life, which was quite heavy on the excerpts from his daughter's biography of him. A conceit that made for this humorist's story, full of satirical and joking anecdotes as it was, surprisingly heartfelt and full of little meditations on mortality (not just his daughter's death at twenty-four, but quite a few other references to friends lost). While still teeming with Twain's trademark wit, of course. It was sweet.

On ...more

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Apr 10, 2011 Julie Mendel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I found this book to be fascinating. There are personal philosophies, political aspects and well thought out plans incorporated in every page. Being one who journals, I was intrigued by the notes Twain left behind, things like "publish all of this but not until I am dead." the thought of not publishing his biography until he had been dead for a hundred years was genius, no worries about offending friends and acquaintances because they would also be gone as would likely be there children and pote ...more

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Oct 12, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone, fans of Mr. Twain

I read a biography of Mr. Twain because I was curious about the man. In it I learned that he published the "Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant", which I then read. And, just to see how he himself wrote it, I then read this, his autobiography.

Are all the facts there? Are facts shoved around and bent for his nefarious purposes? Who cares! This is another great read from one of America's best writers of any century. A master of imagery and tale-telling, Clemens makes his life a pleasant read for ...more

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Jan 05, 2015 Bookaholic added it

Mark Twain este unul dintre mulții autori catalogați eronat sau superficial drept literatură pentru copii. Citim, într-adevăr, în copilărie Aventurile lui Tom Sawyer sau ale lui Huckleberry Finn, poate ne mai apropiem de un Prinț și cerșetor și cu asta s-a cam terminat prezența lui Twain în viața noastră de cititor adult. Și e mare păcat, pentru că deși valoarea cărților despre cele două haimanale este incontestabilă în literatura pentru copii și adolescenți, Twain are lucrări superioare acestor Mark Twain este unul dintre mulții autori catalogați eronat sau superficial drept literatură pentru copii. Citim, într-adevăr, în copilărie Aventurile lui Tom Sawyer sau ale lui Huckleberry Finn, poate ne mai apropiem de un Prinț și cerșetor și cu asta s-a cam terminat prezența lui Twain în viața noastră de cititor adult. Și e mare păcat, pentru că deși valoarea cărților despre cele două haimanale este incontestabilă în literatura pentru copii și adolescenți, Twain are lucrări superioare acestor “amintiri din copilărie”, versiunea de Missouri, petrecute în același timp cu trăznăile de la Humulești.

Dintre romanele sale pentru cititori adulți aș aminti aici numai Yankeul…, pentru că după părerea mea genurile pe care era croit talentul de povestitor al lui Twain au fost nuvela și eseul, Bancnota de un milion de lire sterline și Îngrozitoarea limbă germană fiind preferatele mele din aceste categorii.

Mă așteptam deci să citesc Autobiografia lui Mark Twain cu aceeași plăcere cu care i-am citit cărțile. Am avut aceeași impresie pe care mi-a dat-o și discuția zen a Dude-ului Jeff Bridges cu maestrul său – că particip din greșeală la o discuție personală, necizelată pentru public. Autobiografia lui Twain pare și ea o asemenea discuție cu propriile sale amintiri, fără considerație pentru fir narativ, cronologie, claritate, relevanță ori concizie, în schimb cu o dispoziție neostenită pentru verbozitate și supra-abundență a detaliului mărunt.

Neîndoielnic, aceste lucruri fac parte din stilul lui Twain; oralitatea dă și ea în general un plus de autenticitate unei autobiografii. Ajungi însă la finalul cărții și nu prea poți reproduce mare lucru din ce ai citit. Îți amintești că năzdrăvăniile lui Tom și Huck sunt inspirate de propriile pozne ale lui Twain, care era departe de a fi ușă de biserică; reții cum a tras pe sfoară tot satul, făcându-i să creadă că fusese hipnotizat și avea abilități de mediu; mici alte pocinoguri din viața de căutător de aur sau din cea de jurnalist sau de scriitor, pentru că Twain nu s-a potolit nici la vârsta adultă, vârându-se în tot soiul de afaceri anapoda. (continuarea cronicii: http://www.bookaholic.ro/mark-twain-a... ) ...more

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Feb 14, 2011 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After reading this autobiography I have gained new insights into the genius of Clemens. It has given me a better perspective and understanding of his work. If you like his stuff, this will increase your appreciation for it. If you are curious about why people make such a big deal about Twain, this will help you answer that question too.

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Dec 01, 2013 Leslie Shades rated it 5 of 5 stars

This compilation is very well done. I would love to have sat and had a cup of tea with this man. It is my privledge to be able to visit his only remaining original CT home (The Redding one is rebuilt after a fire destroyed its predecessor). A brilliant tragic life. Read it when you can.

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Mar 25, 2015 Neah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: got-a-paperback , classics

This is not a traditional autobiography. It's like a novel itself. You get a great story + great writing style + classic Mark Twain humour.
If I have to be honest, the latter part was a lot more interesting. I mean, I cried for something that's happened more than 100 years ago! Ahh, Mark Twain also known as definition of great writer...
As he writes about his life you can see where he gets his characters for his books. Actually, I've heard that the autobiography's been waiting for 100 years to ...more

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Sep 18, 2009 Dirk rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had to stop reading this one half way through. I got the feeling this was Mark Twain's last joke on the world.

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Jan 07, 2014 Dawson Dailey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mark Twain was among the most fascinating of America's writers. He was brash, witty, eloquent, and very human. He brought us many immortal classics and now he writes to us, as an aging man reminiscing about his life. His biography starts on what seems to be a rather somber note, with him telling us about how as an old man his memory is not as active as it used to be and, to paraphrase the man's words, how he will not be around much longer. His unabridged biography is truly an interesting journey ...more

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Feb 17, 2014 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-group

I think it's a wonderful thing that someone has gone to all the work of combing through all of Twain's papers and organizing them into this autobiography, but I found it entirely too unconnected to read and enjoy. I love Mark Twain as a writer, but let's face it, in his autobiography he does not tell us a story. Well, okay, he tells us lots of stories, but I could never find a thread that tied everything together. I had expected to like this book, but I just didn't care for it. The rest of my bo ...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Garrett Zecker added it · review of another edition

An extremely bizarre text, this book sincerely delves deeply into the passionate distressed and strangely inaccurate history of Mark Twain. It is certainly an autobiography, but a question arises - is it the autobiography of a man who never existed? It certainly is. In this text we are visited by the spectral ghost of a man who has spent his entire life building a brand and a public image that became a historical legend in the right of the entire United States. This image has followed us through ...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Mark Mortensen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography , americana

The literary giant Samuel Clemens known by all as Mark Twain, was born with a tremendous gift of imagination and wit along with the ability to convert it all into creative writing. As death approached Samuel Clemens reflected upon his past revealing his innermost thoughts of his family and peers, his life’s greatest pleasures, of love, of death and most notably his very personal tearful description of the low depths of sudden unexpected departure.

There’s no question Samuel Clemens lived an extr The literary giant Samuel Clemens known by all as Mark Twain, was born with a tremendous gift of imagination and wit along with the ability to convert it all into creative writing. As death approached Samuel Clemens reflected upon his past revealing his innermost thoughts of his family and peers, his life’s greatest pleasures, of love, of death and most notably his very personal tearful description of the low depths of sudden unexpected departure.

There’s no question Samuel Clemens lived an extraordinary life. Besides being a noted author he was a keen businessman when dealing with publishers and making transactions. With success he professed to have installed in his home the first private telephone in the world.

At times his autobiography was a bit flat, but pages later Mark Twain appeared in classic form using his humor to capture the moment with a simple sentence or two. Like a master artist the great painter of words had his own unique style. During his first brief rapture with a female he stated: “…but she scorned me and I recognized this was a cold world. I had not noticed that temperature before.” Another example was when he referenced the character of another famous author by saying: “He hadn’t any more passion for his country than an oyster has for its bed; in fact not so much and I apologize to the oyster.”

On a side note books are read for a variety of reasons such as; pleasure, enjoyment, relaxation, assignment, a simple escape, acquiring information and enhancing one’s mind. Through this autobiography I stumbled upon a fact that grabbed my attention and personally enlightened me. The cause for my satisfaction is certainly of little concern to others, but I will share my brief story….. You will not find in this book the name of Charles A. Hamilton, whom I am exceptionally familiar with. Charles Hamilton came to Buffalo as a teenager in the summer of 1869 and as a paperboy he had many customers including attorney Grover Cleveland the future President of the United States. However this book did reveal that it was at this time that Samuel Clemens became an editor and co-owner of the Buffalo Express newspaper. As a young adult Charles Hamilton owned his own newspaper just outside Buffalo and years later he maintained a lengthy stellar career in Washington D.C. known to journalists as “Dean of the Congressional Press Corps”. I’m glad I was drawn to this historical piece that Samuel Clemens left behind.

...more

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Oct 03, 2013 George Scully rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sam Clemons, “Mark Twain”; the voice that established American literature on the world stage. Author, lecturer, humorist. To read this volume is to familiarize oneself with the man he was (or the man he thought he was). Through this series of essays that travel though his life with delicious non-chronological results is certainly worth the read. Clemons wit and heart shine for the ages to see and appreciate. He will make you laugh out loud and then he will touch you so deeply that you’ll be brus ...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Jeff rated it 4 of 5 stars

(Note: I just realized that Goodreads is lumping together the user reviews for this version that was published in 1959 along with the reviews for volume 1 of the 2010 version. This review is for the 1959 version.)

I liked this book, and I found it worth reading. I'm having a hard time deciding on a rating, though. On one hand, how awesome is it to have thoughts, observations, and reflections of Mark Twain as he looks back on his life? The foreward warns that it may not all be "gospel fact," thoug (Note: I just realized that Goodreads is lumping together the user reviews for this version that was published in 1959 along with the reviews for volume 1 of the 2010 version. This review is for the 1959 version.)

I liked this book, and I found it worth reading. I'm having a hard time deciding on a rating, though. On one hand, how awesome is it to have thoughts, observations, and reflections of Mark Twain as he looks back on his life? The foreward warns that it may not all be "gospel fact," though there is a genuine quality to it. (Twain is, as he says, "speaking from the grave," without concern for offending others.) On the other hand, some of it was a little slow going, especially some of the more anecdotal and/or trivial moments. Plus, this version is incomplete, due to his concerns about the content.

I bought this book (what I refer to as the 1959 version) and started reading it before I knew that a new version was going to be released, so if you choose to read this, keep in mind that there are a few versions available. The 2010 version is supposed to be complete, while I believe the foreward to this 1959 version said that some content was edited out. (However, the 2010 version won't be complete for another few years, as there are two more volumes yet to be released.) For the 1959 version, the content was rearranged into chronological order, while from what I gather, the 2010 version has the content in the supposedly intended order. The 2010 version is supposed to be more of an academic work, while you could argue that the 1959 work might be more appropriate for popular consumption.

This book gives an interesting look at what life was like for Twain, as well as what it was like in general in the 1800s to early 1900s. He talks about his humble beginnings in Missouri, his life and his family. He describes the various jobs he held during his life, as well as places he lived and traveled to, and friends he made along the way. One topic I wish he would have spoken more about was his literature, though I guess I can understand letting the works speak for themselves. The most interesting parts to me were when he talked about his family, including his wife, kids, and a certain nephew in particular, as well as contemporaries such as Ulysses S. Grant, Rudyard Kipling, and Bret Harte. Throughout the book, as he describes events, he offers observations on human nature that make it worth the read. I think I will read this again someday, though I will probably switch to the 2010 version, to see what I missed by reading this version. ...more

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May 16, 2012 Carl Brush rated it 5 of 5 stars

Even after a hundred years, you can’t beat Mark Twain for originality. After fiddling around with the idea of an autobiography or memoir for a couple of decades, rejecting most of his efforts as too literary, he finally around 1902 hit on the idea of 1) eschewing chronology; and 2) dictating rather than writing the story of his life. Chronology ruined spontaneity, he reasoned, and allowed the writer to distort time and facts and hide behind the need to stick to a time line. The act of writing le ...more

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Sep 06, 2013 Silash Ruparell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: silash-reviews

This review also appears on my blog www.silashruparell.com

My one liner: If Huckleberry Finn gave you pleasure as a child, this collection of letters and notes of Mark Twain, will give you as much pleasure now.

Take profits on your stock positions when they have gone up. Not all new technologies are great investments. Heed the advice of technical experts. Due diligence is no substitute for “friends and family”. Some basic investment propositions that are as true today as they were 150 years ago. This review also appears on my blog www.silashruparell.com

My one liner: If Huckleberry Finn gave you pleasure as a child, this collection of letters and notes of Mark Twain, will give you as much pleasure now.

Take profits on your stock positions when they have gone up. Not all new technologies are great investments. Heed the advice of technical experts. Due diligence is no substitute for “friends and family”. Some basic investment propositions that are as true today as they were 150 years ago. And Mark Twain was a pretty disastrous investor.

Some time in the 1860s he took a stock tip from his acquaintance Mr Camp, “a bold man who was always making big fortunes in ingenious speculations and losing them again in the course of six months by other speculative ingenuities”. The tip was to buy Hale and Norcross, and he purchased 50 shares at $300 a share, putting in 20% himself, with the rest on margin. He also persuaded his brother, Orion, to come in for half the amount, and awaited the cheque. Predictably enough, Hale and Norton went through the roof hitting $6,000 per share. Inexplicably Twain waited for Orion’s money before selling out. Predictably enough Hale and Norton came crashing back down. Blasted through the margin and into Twain’s equity, and “at last when I got out I was badly crippled”. Only later does Twain find out that his brother had sent the money in gold (rather than a cheque which any “normal human being” would have done) to a nearby hotel, and the clerk had deposited it in the safe and forgotten about it.

Then there was the foray into patents. Twain acquires a patent for $15,000 from an “old and particular” friend who had neglected to mention to him that it was worthless. The deal was that Twain would pay a further $500 per month to the friend who would do the manufacturing and selling. In his colourful humour Twain tells us “that raven flew out of the Ark regularly every thirty days and the dove didn’t report for duty.”

Or the steam engine, which “another old friend” told him would get out 99% of all the steam that was in a pound of coal. He takes the advice of a coal and steam expert who shows him using a book of “figures that made me drunk and dizzy” which the machine could not come within 90% of the claimed steam release. Despite the expert advice Twain proceeds and engages the inventor because “maybe the book was mistaken”. Five thousand dollars later, the inventor comes up with a machine which saved 1% steam, but “you could do it with a teakettle.” Undeterred, Twain now fancies himself as an enthusiast on steam and takes some stock in a Hartford company which is a making a new kind of steam pulley. “That pulley pulled thirty two thousand dollars out of my pocket in sixteen months, then went to pieces.”

These are just a few anecdotes from a collection of letters and notes which constitute the autobiography of Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens), put together from 1870 up to his death in 1910, and edited into a book by Charles Neider in 1959. He is not afraid to admit his follies, and he is not afraid to admit his vanity:

“This Autobiography of mine is a mirror and I am looking at myself in it all the time. Incidentally I notice the people that pass along at my back...and whenever they say or do anything that can help advertise me and flatter me and raise me in my own estimation I set these things down in my Autobiography.”

We learn that Twain was a highly proficient billiards and pool player. And with our modern world obsessed with level playing fields and standardised rules he gives us the story of the billiards table at Jackass Gulch, a dilapidated former mining town which the gold deposits were now exhausted. The saloon is of a “ruined and rickety character struggling for life, but doomed.” And the pool table reflected this, with chipped balls, the cloth darned and patched, the table’s surface undulated with headless cues that “had the curve of a parenthesis”. And Twain postulates that it would be much more entertaining to have the great champions who grace the competition tables of Madison Square pit their skills against Texas Tom of Jackass Gulch on the bad billiard outfit, where adjustments have to be made for all of the table’s faults and inaccuracies. Possibly some life lessons there.

And how did Twain conceive of Finn, the reckless boyhood adventurer ? Well there must have been something of the Twain about Finn. An example comes from 1845 when a measles epidemic is claiming the lives of many children in Mark Twain’s home town. The ten-year old Twain is so engulfed with impatience as to whether he will succumb to the epidemic that he forces the issue by deliberately sneaking into the house of his measles-infected friend and jumping into bed next to him. Needless to say he contracts that disease, but survives by a whisker.

The book is a fascinating insight into an America which is transforming from Emerging Market to Global Superpower (“Steadily, continuously, persistently, we are Americanizing Europe, and all in good time we shall get the job perfected”). Twain was a supporter of equality, though his language reflects what was culturally acceptable and normal in a country where slavery was still prevalent. And he was active all the way to his death. Although one suspects that if the death of his wife in Italy 1904 was a near-fatal emotional blow to him, then the loss of his daughter Jean in 1909 probably sapped his remaining will to live.
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Aug 19, 2007 John Wiswell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: Humor readers, biography readers, classics readers, literary readers

Why read anyone else on Mark Twain when you can read his own words? Twain was brutally honest, devoting entire chapters to times of personal loss and failure. He covers one particular night when he bombed at a lecture, showing no particular ego. In another he covers the night his brother died with savage emotional honesty. He explains as many aspects of his own development as he can think of, from growing cold in learning the ways of literature, to growing up on the Mississippi, to his spiritual ...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Ethan rated it 4 of 5 stars

On receiving the news of his daughter's death: "It is one of the mysteries of our nature that a man, all unprepared, can receive a thunder-stroke like that and live. There is but one reasonable explanation of it. The intellect is stunned by the shock and but gropingly gathers the meaning of the words. The power to realize their full import is mercifully wanting. The mind has a dim sense of vast loss -- that is all. It will take mind and memory months and possibly years to gather the details and ...more

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About Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain , was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer . He apprenticed with a printer. He also work Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain , was an American author and humorist. He is noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), called "the Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer . He apprenticed with a printer. He also worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to his older brother Orion's newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he next turned to journalism. While a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which proved to be very popular and brought him nationwide attention. His travelogues were also well-received. Twain had found his calling.

He achieved great success as a writer and public speaker. His wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

However, he lacked financial acumen. Though he made a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he squandered it on various ventures, in particular the Paige Compositor, and was forced to declare bankruptcy. With the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers, however, he eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain worked hard to ensure that all of his creditors were paid in full, even though his bankruptcy had relieved him of the legal responsibility.

Born during a visit by Halley's Comet, he died on its return. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

Excerpted from Wikipedia . ...more

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, #2)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, #1)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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“What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is lead in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, and every day, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts, (which are but the mute articulation of his feelings,) not those other things are his history. His acts and his words are merely the visible thin crust of his world, with its scattered snow summits and its vacant wastes of water-and they are so trifling a part of his bulk! a mere skin enveloping it. The mass of him is hidden-it and its volcanic fires that toss and boil, and never rest, night nor day. These are his life, and they are not written, and cannot be written.” — 17 likes

“We had a little slave boy whom we had hired from some one, there in Hannibal. He was from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and had been brought away from his family and his friends, half way across the American continent, and sold. He was a cheery spirit, innocent and gentle, and the noisiest creature that ever was, perhaps. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, whooping, laughing - it was maddening, devastating, unendurable. At last, one day, I lost all my temper, and went raging to my mother, and said Sandy had been singing for an hour without a single break, and I couldn't stand it, and wouldn't she please shut him up.
The tears came into her eyes, and her lip trembled, and she said something like this - 'Poor thing, when he sings, it shows that he is not remembering, and that comforts me; but when he is still, I am afraid he is thinking, and I cannot bear it. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing, I must not hinder it, but be thankful for it. If you were older, you would understand me; then that friendless child's noise would make you glad.' It was a simple speech, and made up of small words, but it went home, and Sandy's noise was not a trouble to me any more.” — 12 likes

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